Tag Archives: Gentleman of seas

Commander Salvatore Todaro, beloved for his humanity by his crew and even by the enemy, was also known as the Gentleman of the seas or the Don Quijote of the seas.

Born in 1908, attended the Naval Academy from 1923 till 1927. In 1940 he was the commander of submarine Manara first and later of submarine Cappellini that was driven out of the Mediterranean Sea through the Gibraltar strait and operated in the Atlantic Ocean from Betasom, the Italian base in Bordeaux.

He becomes famous all over the world because on October 15th, 1940 he sank the Kabalo, a Belgian trading vessel operating under British flag but, on his own risk, he rescued the 26 crew members towing the lifeboat four days long and later keeping them on the board till Azores. Despite the official reprimand of Admiral Dönitz, commander of the joint submarine operation, he sank British vessel Shakespeare and again he rescued again the wrecked crew.

At the end of 1941 he was able to reach Bordeaux despite the heavy damages due to the British attacks: the submarine remained blocked for repairs several months and he moved to the Decima MAS, the Italian Navy Special Forces, organizing all the operations on Black Seas and the Sevastopol block.

In 1942 his new challenge was organize a similar strategy along the Libyan and Egyptian coasts with coordinated attacks from seas with fast boats starting from fishing boats.

On December 14th, 1942, coming back from a mission directed to Bona, the fishing boat Cefalo was attacked by a British Spitfire. Salvatore Todaro was hit by shrapnel to the head and died instantly: he was 34 years old. His memory was honored with the Gold Medal in addition to the previous 3 Silver medals, 2 Bronze and 2 Gernan iron crosses.

After 70 years a ceremony held yesterday in Livorno keeps his memory alive.